PORT ST. LUCIE — There wasn’t much good to take from Devin Williams’ lone season with the Yankees, a season in which he lost the closer job twice and hardly resembled the dominant reliever he’d been for most of his career in Milwaukee.
But as Williams settles into his new home with the Mets, he believes at least one good thing from last year follows him to Queens.
“Mental toughness,’’ Williams said following the team’s workout Friday at Clover Park. “I wasn’t executing and I was getting bad results. It got pretty tough there, but I got through it and was throwing the ball really well by the end of the year.”
Williams is hoping the fact he finished the regular season with nine straight scoreless appearances, mostly setting up closer David Bednar, and four more in the playoffs, proves that he was able to put his 2025 struggles behind him.
“Probably that last stretch of games, that was me, that’s my standard,’’ Williams said. “I was executing the way I need to.’’
And now he’s back closing games, with Edwin Díaz having left for the Dodgers shortly after Williams signed with the Mets.
He said he’s ready for the challenge.
“You’re gonna fail,’’ Williams said. “[Stuff] got really bad for a little bit last year, but I’m still me. I’m still the same guy. I’m still really good at this game.”
“He’s been a guy,” Carlos Mendoza said of Williams’ status as one of the top closers in the game. “Last year wasn’t easy for him at the beginning and he made some adjustments.”
Last year’s experience may end up helping him going forward. “You’re always going to have adversity,’’ Williams said. “That was the toughest it’s been for me in the big leagues.”
But he noted it wasn’t the lowest point of his career, instead pointing to 2018, when he was still in the lower level of the minors with the Brewers, coming off Tommy John surgery and had a terrible season.
“There were times I was ready to quit in ’18,’’ Williams said. “I came back from [surgery] and I was terrible and wanted to go home. Every day wasn’t good. But I got through that, got to the big leagues [in 2019] and the rest is history.”
Just as he hopes 2025 is history for him, too.
It will take some time before Brett Baty gets some reps in right field, where he will be in the mix for playing time once his balky right hamstring fully heals.
Mendoza said Friday that they are focused on getting Baty reps in the infield — where he has been working at first base — before getting him in the outfield.
But Mendoza is confident Baty will be able to make the transition for one main reason. “The athleticism,’’ the manager said.
And he pointed to what Baty was able to do last year as a reason, as Baty moved from third base to second without much of an issue.
“We didn’t know which way it was gonna go when we asked him to play second base,’’ Mendoza said. “It’s not an easy position, especially when you’re used to playing on the left side and a corner position.”
Baty “made that transition easily,’’ according to Mendoza.
Baty played some outfield in the minors, most recently starting games there in 2022 with Double-A Binghamton.
“He’s familiar with the outfield,” Mendoza said. “Now we’ve got to get him reads with angles. He enjoys being that type of player and he takes it personally.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
